Probes for optical measurements of tissue may provide a wide variety of applications and modalities, for providing clinicians with details regarding the state of tissue to guide diagnosis, treatments and/or surgery. The optical modalities for which probes have been developed include broadband spectroscopy (ultraviolet, visible, near infrared, and short wave infrared), fluorescence, Raman spectroscopy, optical coherence tomography, photoacoustic tomography, coherence anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy, confocal microscopy, among others.
Port-based surgery is a minimally invasive surgical technique where a port (generally a cylindrical plastic tube open on both ends) is introduced to access the surgical region of interest. Unlike other minimally invasive techniques, such as laparoscopic techniques, the port diameter is larger than the tool diameter, allowing bi-manual tool manipulation within the port. Hence, the tissue region of interest is accessible through the port. While a wide variety of optical probes have been developed for numerous modalities, optical probes for port-based surgery have not been developed. For example, current optical probes are not compatible with port-based surgery due to sizes of the probe, sterilization tolerance, lack of signal enhancing mechanisms, lack of integration with surgical tools, lack of position and orientation tracking, and lack integration with other optical systems. At present the lack of these features hinders and restricts the use and utility of optical probes for port-based surgery. Similar respective restrictions may also exist with other types of surgical techniques.